American citizen held in county jail as illegal immigrant

Comments 4| Recommend 3
American citizen held in county jail as illegal immigrant

08:22 PM CDT on Friday, October 17, 2008

Rucks Russell / 11 News

HOUSTON -- Leonard Parrish loves spending time in his garden, but spending time at the county jail is something he never bargained for.

Video

American citizen held in county jail as illegal immigrant
October 16, 2008 View larger E-mail Clip More Video "This must be some kind of game or something that someone's playing on me," Leonard Parrish, Houston resident and American citizen.

What happened last month was not a game. Parrish discovered he had an outstanding arrest warrant for a bad check and came to the jail to pay the small "no arrestâ€

[quote]"Because if you're white, and your name is George Jones, and it has a “Wâ€

Wow, he showed his real id and they still put him through a humiliating experience. Sounds like a computer error caused the problem. I am sure his lawyer will take care of the rest.

[quote]"Because if you're white, and your name is George Jones, and it has a “Wâ€

[quote="MW"][quote]"Because if you're white, and your name is George Jones, and it has a “Wâ€

[quote]Because if you're white, and your name is George Jones, and it has a “Wâ€

Quote:

---

A spokesman at the county jail said that procedurally the Sheriff's office did not do anything wrong. They said Parrish was flagged because a "U" appeared next to his name on the jail's computer system, signaling his immigration status was unknown.

---

This is KEY and debunks the racial stigma latino organizations whine about. Parrish is an English name, the computer did not know what his race was, his immigration status was UNKNOWN.

Did police did the right thing. If they had ignored the U and let him go because he was not latino, that would've been wrong. They treated him the same as they would anyone with an unknown immigration status. They held him until his status could be confirmed and he was released. I would rather be safe than sorry, any American would be. Bravo!

To a lot of Texans, New York and Boston are foreign places.